“He has turned the flank of a superior force, and is in retreat with a hostage,” I replied.
When, half an hour afterwards, I again encountered the victorious enemy, they made straight for me. I received them with dignity.
“Rollo, dear,” began my sister, laying her hand affectionately on my sleeve, and coming very close to me, “we have something to say to you.”
Her voice was almost a whisper.
“Yes,” said Bassishaw. “You see it’s this way, Butterfield, I’ve asked Caroline to be my wife. I know it’s too bad not to have let you into it, but, hang it all, you don’t encourage a chap much, you know. You’re so deuced quizzy, you know. And, I say, Butterfield. That was all rot about soldiers not marrying, now, wasn’t it? I know you’re a good chap, Butterfield, and you’ll let me have Carrie, won’t you?”
I was afraid he was going to say I should not lose a sister but gain a brother; but he didn’t. My spirit was broken; I had no dramatic surprise left in me. Carrie looked up pleadingly, with a tiny little tear in one eye.
“It’s 'yes,’ isn’t it, Butterfield?” said Bassishaw. “You’re the only one to ask, you know. And if it isn’t 'yes,’ you know——”
Talented young man! He knew when to press a yielding foe. I sighed, and took an arm of each. I feebly tried to recover my old authority, but they talked laughingly across me, and I knew what sort of glances were passing behind my head. I was led captive to Chatterton and his wife. Action was better than insight after all.
IV
A CHILDREN’S PARTY
A good dinner in particular, and a comfortable sense of solvency in general, had thrown me into a half whimsical, half melancholy musing, from which I was roused by a small pair of hands placed over my eyes from behind, and a challenge to guess.